


Contrast

by sopheelia



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Artist Ben, F/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-22 16:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13171149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sopheelia/pseuds/sopheelia
Summary: Ben Solo is an artist who can only find himself incorporating one thing into his work. A girl who he has never met.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello! thank you so much for reading! this is going to be a multi chapter fic, so stay tuned for updates!  
> also, you can follow me on tumblr @ cinnamonleia :)  
> (this chapter was pretty short, but the next ones should be longer! this is just a bit of an intro to this fic)

Art was the only thing that truly made sense to Ben. He spent hours slaving away at various paintings and sketches, but there was one person in particular he always found himself painting and drawing.

A blank canvas. He could make whatever he wanted. The endless potential called to him.

He brushed across the canvas with a black and added darker grays as he went to create more depth to whatever he was creating. He felt his hand, without thinking, go to the reds on his palette, and mix them with some black to make a deep crimson.

This would be a solid painting for him to put in a gallery. The blacks, grays, and reds danced around with each other on the canvas, creating the dark environment they lived in.

"No," He said, thinking out loud. "It needs more."

His hand moved for another paintbrush. A thinner one would work for this. Compared to the one he was using before, the brush was completely different, thin in his hand, and a narrow brush for details. It was made for adding intricacy, unlike the one before which was for building upon what comes before the intricacy.

Ben moved the paintbrush towards the white dallop of paint on his palette, and mixed it with some the blue paint he had, creating a vibrant light blue. It seemed so out of place for the painting he was creating, due to all the dark colors, but somehow, it seemed so right.

Then, Ben lost himself in painting what felt natural and right to him. As he came back to reality, he saw what was in front of him. The girl. It was always the girl, in every single thing he created.

It was tearing Ben apart.

He had been drawing this girl for as long as he could remember. With crayons as he was a child, and now, with oil pastels and paint. Ben needed to find her. Maybe she could be the light in all of his darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey realizes that there might be a missing puzzle piece in her life as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for all the kudos on the last chapter everyone! i hope you all enjoy this chapter, since i had a bunch of fun writing it :)

The campus library was anything but silent. There was the crash, clacking noises of keyboards as students hammered away at essays they should have started earlier. Rey heard a coffee machine, a Keurig, in the distance, dispensing coffee with the horrific wheezing and squeezing sound it always made. Scribblings of papers could be heard. 

The quiet chatter of students, filled with expletives and sighs alike. Somehow, throughout all the noise in her brain and around her, something was missing. She didn't think it was possible to want something added to the symphony of all that was going on in her life, but she did, and she didn't know what that something was.

"Rey?" Finn asked, nudging her shoulder. That was one sound she hadn't heard.

"I'm awake." Rey responded, almost as an instinct. She may have been physically awake, but her mind had been drifting other places.

"I can see that..." He laughed, eyes squinting at Rey's odd behavior. "You're acting weird. Like, more than usual weird."

"I'm just tired, I was up all night doing an essay for Professor Skywalker." 

She wasn't lying. Rey had been up for a majority of the night writing a paper about mindfulness, and the scientific benefits it had on the brain and body. Skywalker was a scientific man, but also seemed like a big hippie. He spent most of his time meditating after all.

But, she was lying.   
She wasn't tired.

Well, she didn't exactly know.

It felt like something was awakened in her when she first came to this university. Sure, many people say that, but she truly felt something inside of her change. Or break. She wasn't sure. 

At first, she thought maybe it was that she was now becoming a real, actual adult. But, she had been living for most of her life as an adult, just without the title of one. She lived on her own at points when her foster families took vacations without her and left her to dog sit. When she ran away from a different foster family that was particularly horrible, she even lived on the streets by herself for a while. She knew what it was like to take care of herself and keep herself alive. 

Maybe it was that she wanted more friends? She had two. Finn, and Poe. Rey had met Finn while in one of her foster families. It was one of the actually decent families she lived with, but, the foster agreement came to an end, and she went off to whatever next family would take her in for the bonus money every month. Finn and her stayed in contact though. They connected instantly. It was like Rey had an actual brother, and she loved him to death. Finn was the closest thing to a family she had ever had, and now, they had gotten into the same college, and got to see each other every day. It was a dream. 

Finn and Poe went together like... peanut butter and jelly? It was a cheesy way to put it (or rather, a jelly way to put it), but it was completely true. They truly loved each other to the ends of the earth. Rey had been the third wheel on multiple occasions (before they realized they were leaving Rey out and instantly stopped being coupley) and observed the two. Not in a creepy way. In a... slightly scientific way. 

Rey had never loved anyone before, well, not like how they loved each other. She had never had any kind of significant other in her entire 18 years of living.

Oh.

Maybe.. maybe it wasn't that she wanted more friends. Rey had the best friends a person could ever ask for. They supported her through thick and thin and made her a better person. 

It was that she wanted somebody.

Somebody for herself. Somebody to call her own and care for, in a way beyond friendship.

When Rey stepped foot on campus, maybe that feeling within her was a voice telling her that whoever that somebody was, was here.

This person was the missing puzzle piece in her life. Rey needed to find them.


End file.
